The ultimate clubman answers his county’s call
IT’S BEEN a long road for Martin Bowen. The new Cork hurling selector was appointed following Erin’s Own win in the Cork Senior Hurling Championship, but his history with the Glounthaune parish side goes back a lot further than the glory days.
“The year before I took over as secretary (1977), we were beaten by Youghal’s second team in east Cork. That was our standard, that was our best team.”
Erin’s Own rallied. They began to make their way up the grades, but the purchase of their own pitch was “key”, says Bowen.
“That gave us a base, whereas beforehand we’d have been moving all over the place. The other big development was winning the county championship in 1992. That was a huge boost and raised our profile, a lot of people got involved as a result.”
On Leeside, legend has long held that the club were on the verge of re-grading. Bowen laughs: “In 1991 we’d been hammered by Glen Rovers in the senior championship. Shortly afterwards John Horgan in the Evening Echo suggested we go down to intermediate, and at the AGM it was debated. We decided to stay up senior, and when we won the championship in 1992 the legend grew that we’d been about to re-grade to intermediate. In hindsight that would have been a disaster.”
Erin’s Own have come again on the back of a great crop of minors and U-21s, but in 2005 a stand-off with the county board saw the club withdraw from the county championship.
“Nobody will ever know if it was the right thing to do,” says Bowen. “But at the time we felt it was.
“We felt we were entitled to some allowance at the time, but the rest is history now. I’d hope that what happened with us would highlight the problem of accommodating intercounty players and club action. That’s an issue for the top brass, but at the end of the day the important people are the players. A balance has to be found between club and county.”
Given his background, it’s not surprising Bowen is a strong advocate of the club’s position in the GAA.
“That’s one area I’d be critical of the GAA. I think it’s failing to grasp the nettle because there are two big issues with the clubs: manpower and finance.
“At this stage there should be full-time liaison officers to bring in training programmes for club officials. You’re talking about huge money in GAA clubs, they have turnovers in the hundreds of thousands of euro, and people are afraid to take on jobs like secretary or treasurer. We were lucky enough to get a well-qualified person as secretary, but we were one of the lucky ones.
“There are all sorts of issues when it comes to running a club — accountancy, health and safety, insurance, management. Any liaison officer would have to have qualifications in management and finance, someone contactable by clubs on an ongoing basis. You could say people are there at the moment for that, but clubs need more help, particularly when it comes to finance.”
Bowen points out that GAA clubs are now “big businesses”.
“They have great facilities which are worth a lot of money. I know the clubs are vested in the GAA, but moving a club out of the GAA’s control could easily be done, and we’re not taking enough notice of that.
“Times have changed — we’ve seen that in every part of the GAA. Incentives must be put in place to encourage people to get involved. Club secretaries get passes for games, but maybe every club officer should get one. The same for tickets — we’ve had situations in the past where club officers have been left without tickets. I don’t think enough thought has been given to this.
“Having been involved with the club for so long, I think they need a lot of support. There’s an absolute necessity for something to be done, and I think it’s by appointing someone who’s available full-time, who can go around to clubs.”
Bowen acknowledges that people are more protective of their spare time nowadays — “No matter what organisation you’re involved in, it’s hard to get people involved” — but points out that lip service is insufficient support for clubs.
“We always hear from the top brass in the GAA that the club is the backbone of the Association, but the problems are there. Helping the club to maintain its position in the community is crucial. If we lose that, we lose our ethos.
“The administration of the Association at the top level is drifting away from the majority of its members. The great strength of the GAA has always been the feedback from members, clubs and county boards to Croke Park, but that seems to be gone. There seems to be an elitist group running the GAA.
“How do people get jobs in Croke Park? What’s their background in the GAA? Opening Croke Park to other sports is a side issue as far as I’m concerned. The guy at the grassroots is every bit as important as the guy at the top, and if the grass roots are unhappy then we have a problem.”
Bowen also regards coaching at schools level as crucial to the GAA.
“The old days of having a teacher coach youngsters after school is gone. I reckon in our part of the world we’d have to spend €25,000-30,000 to get any adequate coaching done, and that’s a lot of coaching. Multiply that by 300 for every club in Cork alone, but it’s imperative to get coaches into national schools with the necessary back-up in terms of equipment.
“The finance generated by opening Croke Park should come back directly to the clubs, but that’s not going to happen. It’s an ideal opportunity to promote the games within schools, but that decision isn’t one the clubs can make. At intercounty level the promotion is top class. But if you’re trying to get fellas to man gates or line pitches for club games, it’s a different ball game. And those fellas need encouragement as well.
“The GAA has been an important part of my life. Sometimes we forget what it’s really about — getting youngsters out playing sport. I have no problem with anybody in other sports, it’s just that GAA is my game.”
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